Key Thought

Today's Prayer

O God, what thanks can I offer? What words, dear Father, are adequate to say thanks for the price that was paid for my sins? While my words are inadequate, I trust that the Holy Spirit will present the yearnings of my thankful heart to you with my deepest appreciation for your sacrifice and the personal cost to your Son. In Jesus' name I thank you. Amen.

Today's Verses in Context

Peter said to Jesus, "We left everything to follow you!" Jesus said, "I tell you the truth. Every person that has left his home, brothers, sisters, mother, father, children, or farm for me and for the Good News will get a hundred times more than he left. Here in this world that person will get more homes, brothers, sisters, mothers, children, and farms. And with those things, that person will have persecutions. But he will also have a reward in the world that is coming. That reward is life forever. Many people that have the highest place now will have the lowest place in the future. And the people that have the lowest place now will have the highest place in the future." Jesus and the people with him were going to Jerusalem. Jesus was leading the people. Jesus' followers were amazed. But those people that followed behind them were afraid. Jesus gathered the twelve apostles again and talked with them alone. Jesus told them what would happen in Jerusalem. Jesus said, "We are going to Jerusalem. The Son of Man will be given to the leading priests and teachers of the law. The priests and the teachers of the law will say that the Son of Man must die. They will give the Son of Man to the non-Jewish people. Those people will laugh at him and spit on him. They will beat him with whips and kill him. But on the third day after his death, he will rise to life again."

Related Scripture Readings

I mean that God was in Christ, making peace between the world and himself. In Christ, God did not hold people guilty for their sins. And he gave us this message of peace {to tell people}. So we have been sent to speak for Christ. It is like God is calling to people through us. We speak for Christ when we beg you to be at peace with God. Christ had no sin. But God made him become sin. God did this for us, so that in Christ we could become right with God.

People made fun of him, and his friends left him. He was a man that had much pain. He knew sickness very well. People did not even give him the honor of looking at him. We did not even notice him. But he took our troubles and made them his. He bore our pain, and we thought God was punishing him. We thought God beat him {for something he did}. But he was given pain to suffer for the wrong things we did. He was crushed for our guilt. A debt we owed—our punishment—was given to him. We were healed (forgiven) because of his pain. But {even after he did this,} all of us wandered away like sheep. We all went our own way. {We did this after} the Lord {freed us from our guilt and} put all our guilt on him. He was hurt and punished. But he never protested. He said nothing—like a sheep being taken to be killed. He was like a lamb that makes no sound when someone cuts off its wool. He never opened his mouth {to defend himself}. Men used force and took him—and they did not judge him fairly. No person can tell about his future family, because he was taken from the land of living people. He was punished to pay for the sins of my people. He died and was buried with the rich. He was buried with evil men. He did nothing wrong—he never spoke lies—but still these things happened to him. The Lord decided to crush him. The Lord decided that he must suffer, so the Servant gave himself to be the one to die. But he will live a new life for a long, long time. He will see his people. He will complete the things the Lord wants him to do. He will suffer many things in his soul, but he will see the good things that happen. He will be satisfied with the things he learns. My Good Servant will make many people not guilty; he will carry away their guilt. For this reason, I will reward him among my people. He will have a share of all things with the people that are strong. {I will do this for him} because he gave his life for the people and died. People said he was a criminal. But {the truth isthat} he carried away the sins of many, many people. And now he speaks for people that have sinned."

My dear children, I write this letter to you so that you will not sin. But if any person sins, we have Jesus Christ to help us. He is the righteous (good) One. Jesus defends us before God the Father. Jesus is the way our sins are taken away. And Jesus is the way that all people can have their sins taken away, too.